Dec. 8, 1937

Dear Diary,
It’s been one month already. I’m cold. I’m hungry. After that tragic night, my sister and I were afraid to go back. I mean, how could we? After what we witnessed with mother? We stayed in a small cottage we found that horrific, tragic night. It was smaller than our house, but it was good enough for us. After what my sister and I have witnessed, we didn’t think it was possible for our mother to come find us, or ever see her again. But fate has brought us here together.
The day we found mother was the day we felt like we might be able to survive this mean, cold, cruel world. Like our new daily routine, we went off at dawn to look for food. We found a couple herbs, cooked them, and ate them. We were talking about mother, and my sister was being stubborn and kept persisting that we would soon be able to see mother again. I felt differently about that. I told her coldly that mother was never going to come back, and that the soldiers have no heart and probably killed her immediately after they raped her. Ming Ming brought up the topic of soldiers as well, and I told her to hush and do silently do wash the dishes. She obeyed, and as I was cleaning the table with a dirty rag, I heard a noise. I whispered to my sister, being loud as always when she does the dishes, to stop and listen. We heard footsteps. My sister and I panicked. I thought to myself, “Why did we stay here this long? How could you be so stupid! You’re supposed to protect your sister!” I hissed at her to quietely pack up everything we had here, and as she packed, I ran to the door to try and lock it, but I already heard someone open it. My sister immediately made a run for it. Just as I started, I looked back, and stopped in disbelief. It was mother! My sister stopped as well, and dropped our stuff and ran to her. Mother lost a lot of weight and she looked much older. After we all cried ourselves out, Ming Ming and I listened about what happened. Mother was able to escape the soldiers grasps before they were able to kill her and ran towards the direction that she saw us ran towards, and wandered around until she arrived to this cabin. I teared at the thought of how much our poor, beautiful mother probably suffered from the cold and misery and starvation. After that moment forward, I made a decision that Ming Ming, Mother and I will never be separated again.

Love,
Jing Wei